The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for maximizing the use of storage system resources in a data replication environment.
Data replication across storage systems is used to provide protection and continued access to data for disaster recovery. The primary data volumes are used for read/write access by attached host systems. Updates to the primary volumes are replicated to a set of secondary data volumes in a separate storage device/system. The storage device/systems that provide the primary and secondary data volumes are physically separate and are likely at different geographic sites. If a set of primary data volumes at a site storage device/system is unavailable for any reason, there are mechanisms to transition work from the primary data volumes to the secondary data volumes at the other site. Ideally, this transition is accomplished without impacting performance required by workloads being submitted to the primary data volumes which are now transitioned to the secondary data volumes at the alternate site. This means that the secondary storage devices/system of the alternate site is significantly under-utilized to ensure that it can meet performance requirements in the event of a failover from the primary workload.